1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automobile roof structure which includes a pair of right and left roof side rails, a transparent roof panel attached to cover a space between the roof side rails, a sun shade disposed slidably along a bottom surface of the transparent roof panel, and a shade support member for supporting the sun shade in a slidingly movable manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, there has been known a panoramic roof structure intended to increase a light-transmittable area in a roof portion of an automobile body by extending a glass roof panel continuous with a front windshield attached at the front of a passenger compartment, to the vicinity of a center pillar located at each of opposite lateral sides of the automobile body, as disclosed in EP Publication No. 1405744 A1 (Patent Publication 1), or by attaching a roof panel made of a transparent glass material or a transparent plastic material, to cover the entire roof portion of the automobile body, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-104240 (Patent Publication 2).
While the roof structure designed to attach a transparent roof panel to a roof portion of an automobile body, as disclosed in the Patent Publications 1 and 2, has an advantage of being able to increase a light-transmittable area of the roof portion in a frontward/rearward or longitudinal direction of the automobile body so as to effectively provide enhanced open feeling in an passenger compartment, it involves technical difficulty in stably supporting the transparent roof panel by the automobile body. Moreover, the roof structure is required to have a sun shade designed to be slidably attached below the transparent roof panel so as to selectably shield light from the roof portion, for example, when sunshine is too strong.
For example, in the automobile roof structure disclosed in the Patent Publication 2, a frame-shaped inner shell has a lateral frame region consisting of an upper frame member and a lower frame member. The upper frame member having a hollow-chamber-defining portion therein is adhesively fixed onto an upper surface of a roof side rail extending longitudinally along a lateral edge of the automobile body, and a lateral peripheral portion of the glass roof panel is fixed onto the upper frame member. The lower frame member is formed to cover a space between an inward edge of the upper frame member and a lower edge of the roof side rail. The inward edge of the upper frame member is formed to protrude inward of the automobile body relative to the roof side rail. A guide rail is incorporated in the inward edge of the upper frame member, and a sun shade (shade or sunblind) is supported by the guide rail in a slidingly movable manner. As needed, the sun shade can be pulled out of a take-up reel disposed on the rear side of the roof portion to cover a bottom surface of the transparent roof panel so as to shield sunlight.
In the above roof structure where the lateral peripheral portion of the glass roof panel is fixed onto the lateral frame region which consists of the upper frame member having the inward edge protruding inward of the automobile body relative to the roof side rail and the lower frame member formed to cover the space between the inward edge of the upper frame member and the lower edge of the roof side rail, an light-transmittable area of the roof portion is inevitably narrowed in a width or lateral direction of the automobile body, due to the lateral frame regions existing between opposite lateral peripheral portions of the glass roof panel or between opposite side door openings, and an open feeling in the passenger compartment will be undesirably spoiled.